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Project

Innovation through Education. Pioneering Change in Law and Theology in Louvain’s Golden Age

A major centre of innovation from its foundation, the University of Louvain has been engaged in a constant process of knowledge transformation. In the run-up to the celebration of the 600th anniversary of the university in 2025, this project aims to analyse how major Louvain professors in law and theology took that mission to heart in the early modern period. The main research question is: How did their educational role urge Louvain scholars to innovate the contents and methods of their science to address the religious, political and economic challenges of their time? The project will draw on hitherto unexamined archival student notebooks and confront them with their printed counterparts, including dissertation sheets. By valorising the exceptional cultural heritage consisting of rare books and manuscripts at KU Leuven Libraries, the project will shed new light on the dynamic interaction between societal change and knowledge innovation at Louvain in its golden age.
Date:1 Oct 2019 →  Today
Keywords:Cultural heritage, Early modern history, History of education, History of economic thought, Canon law, History of universities, Ius commune, Jesuits, Legal history, Augustinianism, Baianism, Molinism, (Counter-)Reformation, Scholasticism, School of Salamanca, State formation, Knowledge transformation
Disciplines:Heritage conservation management